Forty-five percent of APAC consumers use mobile phones to compare prices. This is the highest globally, with the U.S. coming in at 28 percent (eMarketer, 2014)

South Korea, at 51 percent, is the top market for mobile banking use. China (41 percent), Australia (40 percent), and the U.S. (38 percent) round out the top four. (eMarketer, 2014)

So what are people buying? Well in Asia,apps are still the number one purchase, according to Warc, with Thailand at 37.9 percent, Vietnam at 31 percent, and Malaysia at 30.4 percent. However, we are starting to see a shift from people purchasing digital-only goods via mobile to the purchase of higher-end retail goods such as fashion, grocery, and even auto in certain cases.

The main mechanisms people are using to buy goods are the mobile Internet at 36 percent, mobile apps at 24 percent, SMS at 19 percent, and NFC (near field communication) at 12 percent.

SMS payment is mostly used in China and represents 30.5 percent of all mobile payment solutions in that market. Mobile phones linked to a credit card make up just 13.6 percent of mobile payment solutions.